


The Summer Society's Guide to Break Ups

by lightfighter08



Category: Carmilla (Web Series)
Genre: Danny & the Summer Society, F/F, because there are never enough Summer Society fics
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-10-23
Updated: 2014-10-23
Packaged: 2018-02-22 07:29:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,965
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2499617
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lightfighter08/pseuds/lightfighter08
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Post-ep 24. Following Danny's massive blowout with Laura, she quickly retreats into general misery. The Summer Society, alarmed at their captain's failure to deal, is on the job.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Summer Society's Guide to Break Ups

**Author's Note:**

> Oh man, I can't believe how much time I spent on this/that I wrote any fic at all...but this show clearly has me feeling some type of way. Proudly featuring Danny and her gang of trigger-happy monster hunters.

The Summer Society had been working overtime lately. Whenever they weren’t doing the bare minimum to maintain their totally plausible cover as Silas’ “all-girls social club for outdoor athletics,” (a cover story which, it should be mentioned, was bought by roughly none of the student body save for some particularly dimwitted Zetas) they were swamped carrying out their real purpose, that is, serving as the university’s semi-official monster hunters and guardians, charged with keeping the campus mostly monster-free and only slightly dangerous.

This semester, their occupation had become exponentially more time-consuming and life-threatening then in terms past (not that the latter point was ever overly discussed, as self-preservation was not an especially strong trait amongst the suicidally brave, heroically reckless, and generally headstrong bunch that made up the Society).

While the cause for the more frequent monster appearances at Silas and its boundaries was still unknown, this in itself wouldn’t have been much of a problem for the Society, and probably would have been accepted as both great fun and a brilliant way for the Society to continue to prove its dominance over Zeta Omega Mu and any other student group foolish enough to challenge their rightful place as protectors of Silas, had it not been for a minor problem: one Danny Lawrence, VP of Outdoor Rec to any overly curious outsider, but in reality captain of the Society, and thus charged with organizing patrols, wrangling the murderous but easily-distracted members of the Society, and the general safety of Silas.

Danny had been carefully picked by the Society’s departing leadership the term before for her unyielding bravery, leadership skills, and most importantly, level-headedness (an also unfortunately rare trait within the Summer Society’s membership) – someone needed to make sure the girls didn’t get themselves all killed charging after minotaurs and chimeras, or equally importantly, that the damn weapons were actually properly cleaned after hunts (there was nothing like ichor to eat through pure steel. Or floors. There were only so many explanations that could be provided to repair crews about why the Summer Society’s house needed repairs for a hole that went through three floors).

Danny had been carrying out her duties admirably throughout the semester; patrols were well-organized and went off with only minor injuries, there were no bubbling puddles of ichor to be found burning their way through any surfaces of the armory, and preparations for the Adonis Festival and Hunt were well underway.

In the last several weeks, however, she had grown noticeably distracted, handing off more of her duties to her lieutenants and spending greater and greater amounts of time away from the Society house; some of the more curious members of the Society had “happened” to follow her (from a very safe distance) to see what was taking up her time these days, and were unsurprised to see her disappearing into the international students’ dorm – most of the girls had, after all, met Laura Hollis, as she had been over to the Society house on more than one occasion to hang out with Danny.

The girls were quite fond of the freshman, her videos, seemingly endless supply of cookies, and effect on their clearly smitten leader quickly winning their favor. They were all of the (unsolicited) opinion that Danny had long past been in need of a girlfriend, any girlfriend, and that the potential candidate was someone as endearing as Laura was only a plus, and so from Laura’s second visit onward they had set up a betting pool to see when Danny would finally girl the hell up and ask her out. They were expecting this development any day now, and Danny’s own occasional comments only seemed to confirm its impending arrival.

So when one day Danny abruptly abandoned her grading of midterms after receiving a text and all but sprinted out of the Society house, a stake in hand – and man had she been whittling a lot of those recently – the girls didn’t quite know what to think, but then again, seeing Society members make quick departures from the house bristling with heavy weaponry wasn’t an overly uncommon sight, and so they dismissed it.

But when she stormed back into the house not an hour later, looking both miserable and flushed with rage – and was that a _handprint_ on her neck? – went straight to the armory and, having secured a longbow and quiver, promptly left and headed straight for the woods, the girls began to feel that a Very Bad Thing may have just occurred to their leader, and thus, naturally, to them.

That night, after she finally returned, dragging a large buck behind her but looking none the happier, one of her lieutenants tentatively approached her, having been reluctantly prodded into action by the rest of the members. Emily Carleton was Summer Society through and through, had led scores of girls into battle, faced down manticores without blinking, and was a fine lieutenant, but also had a will to live, and somehow approaching her captain while she skinned a dead buck and wore a forbidding expression seemed like it may jeopardize that state.

“Hey, cap…so, some of the girls were just wondering, if, er, everything was alright-” she began, only to taper off as Danny looked up from her work, her face like a thundercloud.

“Everything’s fine, Emily. Couldn’t. Be. Better,” she said, punctuating her words with rather violent jerks of the knife she was holding. (Emily leaned slightly away.)

“Right, right, it’s just, you left in quite a hurry earlier, and you’re looking a bit bruised…” Emily tentatively pressed on, if only to assuage the concerns of the 15 or so girls completely conspicuously eavesdropping outside the room.

“I didn’t realize I needed permission to leave, lieutenant,” Danny replied, her words measured and sharp. Outside, the girls collectively winced, and Emily gave serious thought to retreating while all of her limbs were still in tact and her dignity only slightly damaged…but then again, looking closer at Danny’s face, she thought she saw signs of some more serious emotion beneath the captain’s anger, and mentally bidding farewell to her loved ones, decided to forge ahead a final time.

“No, of course not! You’re the captain, and er, anyway – how’s Laura? She doing alright?” she asked a bit wildly.

But at the mention of Laura, the frozen mask of anger Danny had been wearing slipped, and for a second it looked very much like the redhead was about to cry. Emily’s concern levels shot through the roof, but while she was formulating a sensitive line of questioning, Danny had sighed and slumped over the table, putting her knife down and letting her hair fall to cover her face.

“Emily, could you just…drop it? And I don’t- I don’t think Laura’ll be coming by for a while,” she said, still looking down.

So that was it, then. Something had happened between the adorable freshman and Danny, and judging from the captain’s current state, she was the one in the wrong (hard as that was to believe). Alarmed and concerned, but willing to give Danny her space, Emily took her leave, dragging along with her the now anxious group of eavesdroppers, shushing them as they attempted to quietly hiss questions at her as they snuck away.

Even though Emily and the rest of the Summer Society would greatly have liked to get to the bottom of whatever blowup had occurred between Danny and Laura, there was hardly a minute for it – the following week saw a sharp uptick in spontaneous monster appearances on campus (and there was never anything quite like heading to lecture and jamming to some song on your phone one moment and running from an ophiotaurus while frantically texting your sisters for backup the next) and the moment for a heart-to-heart never quite appeared.

(Though, to be fair, it’s not like anyone didn’t know what was going on. Depressed Danny listened to a _lot_ of sappy love songs, drank more hot chocolate than any of them had ever known her to even like, and had the worrying tendency to charge into battle with more zeal than the most gung-ho Society newbie.)

After several days of enduring nothing but The xx – because really, Coexist was a great album, but not on repeat for seven days – the Summer Society at large had had enough. When not going to classes or charging off on some suicidally dangerous solo patrol (and god help anyone who tried to stop her), Danny hardly left her single, had shifted from her usually healthy diet to one that seemed to consist mainly of hot chocolate and cookies, and generally was a hot mess. The girls unanimously agreed: something had to be done, both for her sanity and theirs.

At a hushed but intense Society-wide meeting in the den (sans Danny, who was as usual holed up in her room, “Reconsider” playing at top volume) that evening, it was decided that the brave confronter would be Emily, as she had had the dubious honor of speaking to Danny the first time and had lived to tell the tale.

Emily, feeling more sacrificial lamb than heroic, but also feeling like someone should speak up for their captain, attempted a protest: “Guys, have you considered that maybe we should just let her be? She and Laura clearly had a massive fight, and I don’t want to do more harm than good-“

They were having none of it. Anna, a third-year member who had recently been given lead of Wednesday patrols, cut her off, saying impatiently, “Emily, we have let her be. And she’s clearly not handling it. She ate the _entire bucket_ of cookie dough in the freezer. The entire bucket!”

The injustice of this act was clearly felt by everyone in the room, and Anna, now warmed up, continued: “And if you’re not gonna talk to her, then you’re buying the lot of us all earplugs. Because I can’t handle one more song off that bloody album.”

This was met by feverish nods of agreement, one girl pointedly glaring at Emily as the song upstairs changed to a new track.

Anna wasn’t quite done. “Look, we all want the best for the cap, and we all like the freshman, but this is getting a bit out of hand. You’ve got to do something.”

Wilting under their fierce glares, and eager to cut off Anna before she began a new round of grievances, Emily raised her hands in surrender. “All right, all right! I’ll talk to her, jeez…”

Which found her outside Danny’s door, wondering how the hell she got herself into these situations. After a 30-second mental pep talk – she was a lieutenant of the Summer Society, dammit! She was badass! She’d faced down a hydra, she could have a simple conversation with the captain – she raised a hand and knocked on the door.

“Ask Emily. If it’s the cookie dough, I don’t know what you’re talking about,” came Danny’s voice from behind the door.

Emily couldn’t help but roll her eyes. “Cap, it’s me.”

“If it’s another ichor spill, don’t touch it and call Hans’ Reflooring. They know not to ask questions.”

“There’s no ichor. I just wanted to talk. Can I come in?”

“…Fine.”

Emily tentatively stepped into the room, and winced at the all too expected sight before her: clothing and books strewn haphazardly across the floor, a long sword leaning against the wall in a fashion that Danny would never normally have tolerated, music blasting from speakers by the door, an empty bucket of cookie dough by the bed with several mugs next to it, and on the bed was the captain of the Summer Society herself, looking rather worse for the wear. Danny was wearing the same pajamas Emily had seen her in for the past couple of days, didn’t look like she’d brushed her hair in just as long, and despite her lounging had dark circles under her eyes.

Frankly, she looked a bit pathetic.

Emily winced again. Just as well that she’d gone up to see Danny alone, she thought. The girls wouldn’t have been overly impressed by the sight before her.

“Rough couple of days, huh?” she asked dryly.

Danny grunted, looking unamused as she reached to turn off the music. “Was there something you needed, lieutenant?”

This time though, Emily wasn’t so easily intimidated, and stood her ground. “Yeah, actually. We’re all worried about you, Danny. You’re not looking too hot.”

The redhead scowled. “Have I always been such a topic of interest for the girls? Shouldn’t they be…I don’t know, going on patrols? Monster hunting?”

“They would be, if you weren’t so keen to dash off yourself for each and every sighting instead of letting them handle it.”

Here Danny looked away, looking slightly embarrassed. “Yeah, well…got to keep my skills sharp, you know?”

“That, or you’re trying to keep your mind off the fact that you totally fucked up with Laura.” Oh. Well. That came out slightly more to the point than she’d expected.

Danny colored furiously, opening her mouth for what no doubt be a livid tirade.

Emily rushed to cut her off, saying hastily, “I mean- no, actually, I do mean that. You’re upset and doing some really dumb things so you don’t have to think about it, though,” pausing here to gesture at the sorry state of the room, “you’re clearly not doing too great of a job.”

At that, Danny deflated, the anger rushing out of her and leaving a clearly miserable, entirely besotted girl in its place. “It doesn’t matter either way. Laura thinks I’m a high-handed, overprotective jackass who doesn’t trust her to make her own choices.”

Emily stared. “Ohh boy. That bad, huh? What happened?”

“Suffice it to say I’m not in her good books. She said that she doesn’t need a _dad_ , due to already having one. She said she and I need different things!”

Emily cringed. This was worse than she’d thought. Danny’s natural protectiveness was usually a great trait, and served her well in her Summer Society capacity, but Emily could see it conflicting with the spirited freshman’s hardheadedness and independence.

Danny was still talking. “I just don’t get it…objectively, the situations she gets herself into are wildly dangerous and she can’t- she can’t handle them! I just want her to be safe, and-“

But Emily was more interested in what she had just said. “Woah, woah, wait a sec. Laura can _definitely_ handle herself, cap.”

Danny stared. “Um, have you seen her? She’s like five feet of cute, which, while incredibly endearing, is not really conducive to survival on this campus.”

“So she’s on the shorter side, sure. But she’s hardly dead weight, you know. That first time she came over, and I gave her a tour of the place while you dealt with that minor Zeta would-be attack? I was showing her the training rooms and she casually mentioned that she’s been practicing Krav Maga since she was like, _eight_.”

Apparently, when stunned into silence, the captain did a great impression of a blowfish, her mouth wide open. Who knew?

“Yep,” Emily continued. “The frosh is a badass.”

Danny sat back slowly, clearly recalculating her impressions of the object of her affections.

Before she got too carried away, though, Emily had a final word to add. “But even if she wasn’t the next coming of the Bride, she can still make whatever choices she wants, no matter how ill-advised. If you really care about her, you’ll respect her right to lead her own life.”

Danny sat up, a protest no doubt on her lips. Emily held up a hand.

“I know you respect her. But she clearly thinks that you think of her as a child. And until you fix that, you two aren't going anywhere.”

A long, slightly awkward pause followed.

Just as Emily was beginning to think she’d spoken too harshly, Danny sighed and nodded. “No, you’re right. I just- there’s a lot of stuff going on in her life right now, and it made me freak out a little bit. I’ll talk to her.”

Emily nodded approvingly. “Do that. Make sure to grovel a little bit.”

Danny shot her a dirty look, and Emily grinned, turning to leave.

Before she left the room, Danny called her back. “Hey…thanks. Sorry for being so horrible this week. I’ll turn the music off.”

“Oh, thank god,” Emily sighed. “If this talk didn't work out I was scared we’d have a mutiny on our hands. You should buy the girls a new bucket of cookie dough; they’re _really_ pissed.”

* * *

A week later, a Summer Society patrol who had just happened to be patrolling the area around the hall where Danny’s class with Laura met, watched with (poorly) concealed interest as their leader exited the hall, a certain freshman walking with her.

Their interest turned to glee as Danny pulled Laura aside, looking contrite, and talked earnestly to her, Laura’s initially guarded expression softening as she went on. Finally, Danny seemed to run out of breath and things to say, and settled for looking pitifully at the other girl. Laura looked up at her, searching for something, and finally gave Danny a tentative smile, which was fully returned with relief.

The moment was then promptly shattered by the cheering of the patrol, who in the tense interval had completely forgotten they were not watching. At Danny’s glare, their cheers segued into nervous laughter, and they quickly dispersed, but not before seeing their captain grin down at Laura, who had started laughing when the cheers first broke out.

That evening, the members of the Summer Society were very pleased to find several brand new buckets of cookie dough in the freezer.


End file.
